While we’ve shot video on the Nokia Lumia 920 a few times under somewhat ideal conditions e.g. quiet, well lit, there’s a good argument to be made that we haven’t seen too many “real world” examples.

From our Lumia 920 forums, member ‘mercilesskiller’ posted this YouTube video clip of a Seether concert at the Manchester Academy 2, Manchester UK. While the clip is only 58 seconds long and shot in 720P (the Lumia 920 can be bumped to 1080P), the result is quite stunning...

For one, the image quality is near perfect with very well balanced light. Obviously optical image stabilization (OIS) is playing a big part in keeping things non-shaky. But perhaps the biggest surprise was the audio quality. Anyone who has ever attempted to record audio at a concert knows how difficult it can be, with the most common result being distortion from the extremely high volume. Yet the Lumia 920 handles it near flawlessly. We’re seriously impressed with the audio fidelity here as the song is clear and distortion free. Truly remarkable stuff.

That great audio is most likely due to the reported inclusion of three high quality Rich Recording microphones. As we wrote earlier on the emerging audio technology:

"The 'High Amplitude Audio Capture' (or HAAC for short) microphones are able to record a broader range of frequencies than standard microphones. HAAC microphones reach 140 dB, which is a significant increase against traditional microphones. This leads to clearer audio being recorded with less distortion."

Indeed, that is exactly what this sounds like.

Pro-tip: If there was one area that could be improved it would be to turn off continuous auto-focus (CAF) in the Video settings, as pointed out in comments. The CAF is a very useful tool but it can be distracting too, such as in the case where the camera is constantly hunting to find the right balance. But since this is a stage set quite far back, the camera could ideally focus once and be okay, which is why disabling CAF in this environment could actually improve the video experience.

Have you recorded some outstanding video with the Lumia 920? Or even just your Windows Phone? Make sure you share with others in the forums and get your credit.

Nice to see. Took my lumia 900 to Alestorm and Epica a few weeks ago and was quite disappointed. The video was grainy and the concert overwhelmed the recording capabilities rendering an unintelligible rumble.

The 920 is so much better at picking up audio than the 900. Used my 920 to record some Dethklok at their concert in Chicago last weekend. Very loud and the 920 picked it up just fine, while my ears are still ringing four days later.

Yea I tried recording some Gojira and many others at Heavy T.O. with my Lumia 900 a couple months back, and the sound was just rumbles and hisses. The video itself looked pretty darn good though, minus the instability/rockiness. This video from the 920 on the other hand is absolutely incredible in every way, for a phone camera especially.

I went to a concert just yesterday with my Lumia 900; took videos like if it was the end of the world only to get home and find out that the audio sounded like crap. Today you post this? Damn you WPCentral, damn you! Is like of you are laughing at me.

To what benefit? That makes no sense. Stereo recording works if you have two microphones separated enough from each other so that it can better ascertain certain audio qualities not detectable by mono recording. How are you to do that on a phone and actually have it make a difference?

Still, how can you expect worthwhile stereo recording from a phone, where two recording mic's would be at MOST half a foot apart (that's being quite generous)...? It's just completely redundant, and in no way would it be better than a mono recording from the same device.

Well, lets use two phones, I will write an app that will use BlueTooth so the phones can be connected together but can distance itself from each other for better Stereo Imaging and record in Stereo using both phones as left and right channels and the Video File with stereo sound goes directly to SkyDrive for download?

turtle beach has been making money off of it for years. and as far as i can tell, they're doing it right. I wouldn't exactly call it a gimmick. But then again everyone loves beats and yet an audiophile would never go near them...

Daniel,
Have you heard the difference between HAAC recording capabilities of the Nokia 808 PureView (stereo) and the Lumia 920 (mono)?
The difference will surely make you change your opinion. I've heard it. Having stereo recording capability on the phone is a significantly noticeable difference.

I'm sorry to have to burst your bubble here, but most gigs like these are mixed in Mono for a number of reasons, the terrible accoustics of most venues being one and mono will transfer way more energy at less volume. What you may perceive as 'stereo' imaging usually is just reflections, general time alignment errors in Line Array or multiple stack setups or a slight processing of the mono signal from the desk.

For all intends and purposes Stereo imaging in cases like these is next to pointless and is way too much work to get right so it's just not worth the effort and time to setup. Also and as indicated the distance between microphones on a phone is simply too narrow to provide proper imaging anyway.

So there. And yes, having done live sound for well over 25 years I consider myself qualified to judge.

Oh and also, getting 7.1 Dolby from two speakers which are less then an inch from your ears is physically impossible, they can trick you into thinking you can, but you can't.

Well as far as I know spotlights can be extremely difficult to properly capture for camera's (certainly tiny phone ones) since the high intensity of the light and in general a great spread and depth. Would switching off the auto-focus acutally work against spotlights? I think it would just appear blury still due to all the intense lights.

I tried using my son's 920 at an Alice Cooper concert this weekend, but pretty much everythign is a big blob of white due to the lights ont he stage, what settings shoudl one use to both take pictures and videos under such a scenario?

So maybe the Lumia 920 will come to T-Mobile subsidized after the 60 day ATT exclusive? Either way I'm waiting to see if it will or I'll get it unlocked if nothing comes out. This is THE phone to have.

I can testify the audio and video is amazing... Went to a concert (Rock, Hip Hop and then some Dubstep) and it reproduced all three genres pretty good... I will upload the videos to youtube to you guys can see...

I gave a friend my 920 to video my band last wekend and for some reason there were skips/missing frames. I dont know why as I had recorded previously fine and since. When I have a chance I am going to try and reproduce the problem. Maybe there was something running in the background eating memory or I had calls coming in that effected it. As I wasnt the one recording it I dont know.

Recently went to a wiz khalifa concert here in san Jose. I had an 8x with me and my fiance had her L920. We both shot video and I of course started to compare exact same shots. Both stills and video. There were pros and cons of each for the stills. However the video, knees down goes to the Lumia 920. We also shot video with an iPhone 4s and an iPhone 5 we were there with other folks. Just didn't compare. By the end of the night I was shaking the L920 just to see how far I could go with the OIS. She ended up sharing her videos with them so that they could post it on their social networks. Almost wish there was a watermark.

NICE! finally something that can compete with the iPhones audio. I would love to test this at Ultra music fest in March, some dubstep and trance would push the limit :) my Evo LTE records amazing, and i mean absolutely amazing, but once that bass drops the audio just boom! horrible :(

I normally go to metal and rock concerts, the quality to distortion that is presented would normally destroy the mix on my phone, hence why I'm impressed with the quality of video and sound the 920 recorded.

I was go into wait til Verizon finally got their effin 922, but I'm going over to shit&t. Oh well, the price I pay for a top tier phone.

I recorded footage at a Flo Rida concert last weekend on my 920. Footage came out pretty damn amazing for a smartphone camera. The only problem was the phone doggedly refused to keep the shot in focus, resulting in most of my footage coming out really blurry. :(